Google Analytics Explained For Complete Beginners (2021)

In the digital world, understanding your audience is crucial. Every click, view, and action taken by a user provides valuable data for your business. Google Analytics, a free tool from Google, allows you to harness this data to your advantage. With zero assumptions about your prior knowledge of Google Analytics, this blog post aims to guide you from the basics to more advanced features, helping you to turn raw data into insightful knowledge.

Understanding Google Analytics: What It Is and Why It’s Essential

Google Analytics is a free web analytics tool offered by Google. It tracks and reports website traffic, providing valuable insights about your audience. It allows you to understand what draws people to your site, how they interact with it, and what might be deterring them.

As of 2020, over 56% of all websites use Google Analytics, making it the most popular web analytics service globally. It’s essential for business owners, marketers, and anyone interested in understanding their online performance.

Setting Up Google Analytics: A Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Setting Up a Gmail Account

Before diving into Google Analytics, it’s recommended to create a Gmail account. This provides seamless access to all Google services, including Google Analytics.

Step 2: Creating a Google Analytics Account

Once you have a Gmail account, head over to analytics.google.com and click on ‘Start Measuring’. This will prompt you to create an account name—typically, this will be your company name.

In order to manage your analytics more effectively, it is advisable to set up separate Google Analytics accounts for each of your businesses. This means, if you run three different businesses, you should set up three distinct Google Analytics accounts.

Step 3: Setting Up Your Property

After creating an account, the next step is to set up your ‘Property’, which is usually the website you wish to monitor. Ensure you provide a clean URL, free from ‘HTTP’ or ‘HTTPS’ to keep things tidy.

Next, choose the country that your business operates in and set the time zone and currency accordingly. For example, if your business operates in the UK, you should choose the United Kingdom as the country, set your time zone to GMT, and select the British Pound as the currency.

Step 4: Enabling Advanced Options

A crucial step that you should not miss is enabling the advanced options. This ensures that you’ll be installing both the Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 properties. Google Analytics 4 is Google’s latest iteration of the platform, offering advanced features. However, it’s currently not as comprehensive as Universal Analytics, so it’s advisable to have both enabled.

After enabling advanced options, you need to enter your website address. Ensure you choose ‘website’ and keep all other options enabled.

Step 5: Providing Business Information

The next page will ask you for information about your business and industry. This is mainly for Google’s research purposes and does not significantly affect your analytics.

Step 6: Accepting Terms and Conditions

Finally, you’ll need to review and accept Google Analytics’ terms and conditions to complete the setup. Remember, if you’re not technically inclined, you can always request your web developer or digital marketing agency to help set up your Google Analytics account. As a business owner, your primary interest should be in interpreting the data, not necessarily in setting up the tools.

Harnessing the Power of Google Analytics: Key Metrics to Track

Once your Google Analytics is up and running, it’s time to explore the wealth of data it offers. Here are some key areas to focus on:

Audience Overview: This provides a snapshot of your users, their demographics, and behaviour.
Acquisition Overview: Learn where your traffic is coming from, whether it be Google Ads, social media, or other sources.
Behaviour Overview: Discover which are the most popular pages on your website, and which are the least popular. This helps you understand what type of content engages your audience.
Exit Pages: This section reveals where people are leaving your website, helping you identify pages that may need improvement.
Search Terms: If your website has a search function, Google Analytics can reveal what users are searching for, helping you understand their needs better.
Conversions: This metric shows you how many users completed a desirable action, such as making a purchase, filling in a contact form, or downloading a guide.
E-Commerce Overview: If your site is e-commerce, this section shows you the revenue generated, conversion rate, and more.

Remember, data is only useful if you can turn it into actionable insights. For example, if you see a high exit rate on a particular page, you may need to evaluate and improve that page’s content or layout.

Wrapping Up: Make Data-Driven Decisions with Google Analytics

Harnessing the power of Google Analytics enables you to make data-driven decisions that can significantly impact your business’s online performance. Whether it’s understanding your audience better, identifying weak spots on your website, or tracking the success of your marketing campaigns, Google Analytics is an invaluable tool.

Are you ready to maximise your business’s online potential? Need help with your Google Ads, or perhaps an independent review of your Google Ads or SEO? Get in touch with us today for a free Google Ads Audit or call us at 07866 555 555. Our team of experts is ready to help you leverage Google Analytics to boost your business success. Let’s turn data into growth, together.

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